Psychology

[Guest Jlall]

I had an interesting situation last night.

 

Jx Jxx A87xx Kxx

 

xxx AKT KTxx Axx.

 

You arrive in 2N after you opened 1N 14-16, pard bid stayman and then 2N which you passed.

 

LHO led the 2 of spades and the opps ran off 4 spades LHO starting with QTxx, RHO AKxx. You pitch 1 club and 1 heart from dummy, and 1 club from your hand. LHO then shifts to the club queen. You win the ace and lead a diamond towards the ace, lho playing the queen, and you lead a diamond from dummy. Then something strange happens. As RHO follows suit, you stop to think and LHO pulls a card from his hand (the tempo was quite fast) before you play. When he realizes you are thinking, he puts it back into his hand quickly.

 

I have a few questions about this scenario.

 

1) What do you do against a weak player?

2) What do you do against a strong very ethical player?

3) What do you do against a strong not so ethical player (yes some exist).

 

Basically, what does LHO pulling a card before you have even played mean?

 

Also, what do you do on this hand (your opp was a weak player).

[Fluffy]

Normally this kind fo thing doesn't matter at all, picking a ♣ is as likelly as picking ♦J.

 

I would finese against everyone. Althou around here there are some interesting theories about weak players playing ALWAYS the Q from QJ, wich leaves restricted choice to nothing, making it a full guess. :D

[han]

I would also just finesse. Perhaps the weak player would play the queen from QJ, but in that case he would be very eager to see what you play to the next trick, and certainly not do something like this.

[cherdano]

I am tempted to play for the drop. I would have thought weaker players usually have to think a second before their first discard.

 

(Putting the card back quickly makes sense either way.)

 

Arend

[Free]

This makes me wonder: is it unethical to draw your card before you have to play or not? Even if you have to discard and you obviously have figured out already what to play? It's opponents who can make use of so-called 'extra information' but they just don't know what that information is. If they use it the wrong way, it's still their own responsability. Or am I wrong here?

 

About the hand: it doesn't matter, you always make your contract: 4♦s, 2♣s and 2♥s. So make the percentage play: cash ♦K. :rolleyes:

[barmar]

Law 73D2 says:

 

2.  Intentional Variations

A player may not attempt to mislead an opponent by means of remark or gesture, through the haste or hesitancy of a call or play (as in hesitating before playing a singleton), or by the manner in which the call or play is made.

 

and 73F2 says:

 

2. Player Injured by Illegal Deception

if the Director determines that an innocent player has drawn a false inference from a remark, manner, tempo, or the like, of an opponent who has no demonstrable bridge reason for the action, and who could have known, at the time of the action, that the action could work to his benefit, the Director shall award an adjusted score (see Law 12C).

 

So even though opponents take advantage of inadvertent tempo variations at their own risk (according to 73D1), if you could have known that it might deceive declarer then he may be absolved.

[Guest Jlall]

It would be unethical to purposely pull a card with the intent of deceiving declarer, but you could never be caught on this, hence me asking both questions 2 and 3.

[barmar]

Note that Law 73F2 does not specify intent to deceive, just whether you could have known that the action might deceive the opponent to your benefit, which is easier to determine. About the only action that tends to be caught in 73D2 is hesitating with a singleton.

[Rebound]

Basically, what does LHO pulling a card before you have even played mean?

 

Also, what do you do on this hand (your opp was a weak player).

I'm not confident of this, but at the table I would read it as LHO holding doubleton because he/she apparently doesn't have to think about what to play. So:

 

1. Go up King.

2. A strong player might have known what was coming and been holding any card, so just make the normal play and ignore it.

3. See #2

[Guest Jlall]

Here are my thoughts...

 

1) A weak player will be very nervous with QJ doubleton that you're going to guess it. They will not be willing to pull a card out because of this nervousness, so pulling a card out indicates tehy are going to discard.

 

2) A strong ethical player probably just got caught up in the tempo and have no problem, thus are following. They aren't nervous because they've seen this situation 1000 times before. If they were going to discard they'd probably think about it.

 

3) If a strong player's ethics were suspect, he may be trying to fool you into thinking he has QJ tight by pulling a card. I wouldn't take inference against this type of player.

 

At the table my weak opp had stiff honor.

[Kalvan14]

Here are my thoughts...

 

1) A weak player will be very nervous with QJ doubleton that you're going to guess it. They will not be willing to pull a card out because of this nervousness, so pulling a card out indicates tehy are going to discard.

 

2) A strong ethical player probably just got caught up in the tempo and have no problem, thus are following. They aren't nervous because they've seen this situation 1000 times before. If they were going to discard they'd probably think about it.

 

3) If a strong player's ethics were suspect, he may be trying to fool you into thinking he has QJ tight by pulling a card. I wouldn't take inference against this type of player.

 

At the table my weak opp had stiff honor.

Yeah, I was thinking about the same lines. A weak player will never have the J.

A strong, ethical player might be nodding, tu pull out a card before declarer plays, but I would expect it is the J.

Strange to say, but I would play the drop against a strong unethical player too.

I would assume the early card is a double blind.